A study from the LA Times shows that women who use sites such as Facebook and MySpace confirms what many of us already knew – women who post tons of photos and updates about themselves on their sites are more likely to base their self worth on appearance and use social networking for attention.
The study involved 311 men and women with an average age of 23. In order to better understand aspects of social networking behavior, the researchers looked at the amount of time subjects spent managing profiles, the number of photos they shared, the size of their online networks and how promiscuous they were in terms of “friending” behavior. The participants completed a questionnaire designed to measure self worth and were asked about their typical behaviors on Facebook.
“The people who tended to base their self worth on things like academic competence, family love and support… spent less time online and showed less interest in attention-seeking through social media….Perhaps this reflects the distorted value
pegged to women’s looks throughout the popular culture and in reality programming from ‘The Bachelor’ to ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians.’ ”
I don’t know that we really needed a study like this done by so many smart people whose talents could have been put to better use, but it’s good validation!
